The Knife of Never Letting Go

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Todd Hewitt is a pretty normal boy. He works on a farm, he tends the sheep, he helps his family with chores. But his family is one of a few families that settled on a new planet. When they settled on this new planet there were other beings that already lived there and from what Todd has always been told they attacked the humans. Because of this soon after landing the humans killed the aliens. Another issue with the new planet is that humans caught the "noise germ", meaning that everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts. Which causes many different problems. One day when Todd is in the forest he hears a silent place in the noise. As he investigates he thinks that it is an alien and as he is going through town the silence is heard in his noise. This causes a complete upheaval that leads to Todd running from his life through the dangerous swamp. To find his way away from those who are pursuing him he follows a map left by this mother to a settlement that he never knew existed. Along the way Todd meets the first girl he has ever seen and he learns that what he has been told his whole life was a lie. While Todd is on the run he figures out how to protect the ones he loves and what he needs to do. As it turns out the leader of his settlement wants him to kill, they want to brainwash him so that he will be part of their army. When Todd arrives at the place where he thinks he can find refuge and get help, it turns out that his enemies had found him. The book ends with Todd in the hands of the people that want him to commit murder.

As mentioned in the textbook there are qualities of good books.(p.56-63) As I was reading in the textbook about these elements, some specific books came to mind from my reading. The textbook discusses plot and that at time it is okay if there are elements of the plot that are predictable to that the reader feels comfortable. In The Knife of Never Letting Go, it is predictable in that the boy gets the girl, and it employs some plot techniques that include flashbacks and foreshadowing.

This book is part of a series, and rightly so. This book ends on a cliff hanger and I would recommend reading the following books in the series. Other books that relate to this are the series that begins with the Red Queen and The Darkest Minds series.

Citation

Ness, P. (2014). The knife of never letting go. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.